Wednesday, 21 September 2016

Emirates revamps corporate loyalty programme

To provide more value added incentives for business travellers, Emirates has revamped its corporate loyalty programme, Emirates Business Rewards. The new programme has been simplified and made more competitive to allow for easier redemptions and upgrades even on last minute bookings.

One of the biggest features in the newly improved programme is the ability to use Business Rewards Points to book any commercially available seat at any time giving members cash-like convenience. Emirates is the first and only airline in the region to offer such flexibility as part of its corporate loyalty programme – improving cost-effectiveness for business travel.

Emirates recently commissioned an independent survey on the perception and habits of over 800 business travellers and decision makers of business travel in the UAE[i]. The key findings reiterate the need for cost effectiveness and flexibility in corporate travel which resonates with the new features of Emirates Business Rewards. According to the survey, the top 3 factors considered for airline selection were fare (30%), flight timings (26%), and value for money (23%).Emirates Business Rewards will satisfy customer needs and provide value-added benefits catered to organizations of any size, charities and clubs. In addition to allowing redemptions for any seats, there is also greater flexibility when it comes to earning and redeeming the Business Rewards Points.

According to the survey, respondents most commonly book business travel online directly with the airline (29%). Smaller organizations were even more likely to conduct bookings directly online with more than 50% of their corporate travel booked this way. With less reliance on third party booking agents, Emirates Business Rewards has enhanced user-experience with easy-to-use customer dashboards. These include tools to manage and book services for employees, and monitor the savings accumulated so far on the programme.

Enrolment has also been simplified regardless of organization size. The introduction of the ‘Guest Traveller’ function means that organizations can include non-company persons, such as consultants, or clients who travel on behalf of the organization, and still earn Business Rewards Points.

While the programme will continue to provide value and service to key industries such as Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Trading and IT, the simplified system and unlimited employee enrolment will also allow other industries with a large labour force, such as the construction industry to benefit from the programme.